Essential Services

While towns on the mainland are able to examine the possibility of regionalizing school, fire, public health and police departments as well as other municipal services, Nantucket is not so happily situated. Since regionalization is not on the table, the town administration must perform a serious analysis of what services are essential and what services are being duplicated by other private and nonprofit organizations.

It is the town manager’s duty to examine the town’s Human Services Department and to determine if the same services will be provided if a Human Services Collaborative is established.

According to chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Michael Kopko, who also serves as chairman of the Human Services Collaborative Study Workgroup, the recommendation to eliminate the town’s Human Services Department came from the town administration and not from the workgroup. Yet town manager Libby Gibson said that the recommendation resulted from discussions between the selectmen and town administration. A report from the town’s Ad Hoc Fiscal Committee this past summer recommended a review of the town’s Health and Human Services Department.

While the selectmen are charged with setting policy, it is the town manager who must make the hard decisions when eliminating or consolidating departments and jobs.

We are told that the town and school departments have cut their budgets to the bone for FY 2011 and that in future years, more and more jobs will be at stake.

We don’t know if the elimination of the Human Services Department is warranted or not. We will not know until a full report on the plans for the Human Services Collaborative goes to the selectmen before town meeting with a clear outline of how it will function and details for its coordinator’s position. In the meantime, the town is without a Human Services Department on July 1, 2010. The hope is that the current director of human services for all her years of dedicated service will throw her hat in the ring for a position that pays $15,000 less.